Red-billed Quelea (Quelea quelea)

Fairly common quelea, in fact the most abundant of the queleas in Africa, south of the Sahara.

Adult males have distinctive red bill and black face when breeding, while females have yellowish bill in breeding. Behind the black face there are 3 morphological variations with some males being pinkish or yellow, even a version with white face.

I pictured them in the Northern Cape, one early cold-ish morning and on another occasion on the Garden route bathing.

The Northern Cape group/flock.

The group on the Garden route taking a bath.

Busy little birds, up and down, up and down....nervous.

Previous bird post White-faced Duck

The Core of US...part 2 (Love)

My history with Struis Bay begin around 1994, when I went with a group of friends. I fell in love with Struis, the moment we arrived. I visited it a few more times, and on one occasion even invented "car trouble" to stay another day.

In 1995, I met a beautiful blue-eyed girl in my office, which I liked but did not think of any further as she was in a relationship with a friend of a work colleague. Later that year we met again at a function, and I gave her a lift to her vehicle, chit chatting all the way. When I got home, I told a friend, I met my wife in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I, again, did not pursue the matter due to the aforementioned condition.

This was a great time of getting to know self for me. I was coming from a 6 year relationship, and at that stage, I was in another on off relationship myself. This was to be an important time, for a boy was becoming a man learning and thinking about respect, love, honor, religion and many other life lessons through reflection and discussion with amongst people, my dad. I learned all about who I was and accepted myself and was comfortable with myself, recognizing where I could improve as well.

February 1996, I was not in any relationships, nor was she, so I asked her to an evening out. We had a great time, dancing and although she had a few suitors, I eventually got the nod, which also nearly did not happen, as I wrote her a letter, stating my intentions, which got lost behind a table (fell off) and she only got it 4 days later by pure luck.

I was in love and so was she. We loved talking and we spent hours doing that, nearly talked ourselves out of the relationship also, but by October that year we took the important decision to go on holiday together and it was at that point we both realized we wanted to get married. A few months earlier her mom was diagnosed with cancer, again, which was to play a big role in our eventual marriage date.

[caption id="attachment_806" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Pondering the future on the garden route lookout.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_802" align="aligncenter" width="474"] One of the big trees in the natural forests of Garden route[/caption]

My first job was to ask fer her parents blessing and I made a date with them on a Friday morning. They lived in Struis Bay at the time, so I left at 6 am, and drove the 2 hours, stopping at a petrol station to freshen up, nervously fumbling with my hair brush. On arrival her mom had breakfast ready, which immediately made me feel a little more comfortable, and I asked for their blessing. She made me promise to look after their only child and I told them that I know she was their most precious gift and so is also mine and still is to this day.

In the second week of November we were back in Struis Bay, and we took a walk to the beach, specific part, called "Skulpiesbaai", translated means "Bay of shells". I had the ring in my pocket, constantly checking, because if it got lost there, it would be gone for sure. At a point, I dropped to my knees and asked her to be my wife. She accepted and I was as happy as a clam, excitedly walking back to "break" the news, only then did they cry (mom and daughter) and to be honest I felt cheated that she did not cry when I asked...just a joke, she obviously knew about it all long before then.

[caption id="attachment_801" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Skulpiesbaai[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_800" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Skulpiesbaai[/caption]

We planned out marriage for the end of 1997, but as time passed, her mom got sicker and we took the decision to move the ceremony to 12 April 1997. This ended up to be a great decision as my wife had both her parents present, as did I, on our important day. Next to the day Boeta was born, the best day of our lives.

After our 2 week honeymoon, we ended again in Struis Bay for our last stop, visiting "our" parents as a married couple for the first time.

So as you can see Struis Bay is like the "flame of a candle", we keep getting drawn back to it and the "warmth" of its never-ending flickering light. The lighthouse at the point is not only a warning for ships passing the point of Africa, it is a beacon, a grounding point, to which we refer and come back to, every so often, the rock on which we built so much.

In part 3 (pain), we will continue the story.

Previous post: post 1 (Life)

Looking down at a little sunshine

The wind is blowing as a cold front passes through, whipping up the ocean, waves crashing thunderously down on the rocks and beach, taking sand back into its depths with every new wave and exposing the round pebbles, so formed by years of tumbling through high and low tides.

Sometimes it feels like giants walking on the beach, their steps rumbling as they walk and as the wind gusts, it is like they take their big hands, shaking the house at the foundations, hoping an unsuspecting prey will come running out.

I feel a tug on my pants and look down at a pair of perfectly rounded blue eyes, it has been a few days of being stranded inside the house and although that little person has very little words to explain his feelings, I can see he wants to go out, he is longing for new adventures.

By midday the winds and clouds break enough to allow a little sunshine. We took our chance to escape the electrified light for the some pure vitamin D producing sunlight, faint as it is. Clipping on my long-lens, loading him into his secure chair, we fire-up the old diesel.

The hope was to find a whale to photograph, but this hope was quickly dashed by the uneasy ocean. The whales were there, blowing a fountain of seawater every now and then, but the ocean hid its giants well, maybe tomorrow or the next.

We turned inland, maybe a bird or something else, but as we drove looking at the trees swinging in the still fairly strong wind, this also quickly became an unlikely prospect. Stopping at some random spot next to the road, I walked around the vehicle with a quarter bottle, prepared in advance for the little one, in case he got thirsty. Opening the door the blue eyes smiled back at me, contend. He was watching the big green things swaying in the wind, next to the vehicle.

The wind tugged at my pants and I looked down again, only to look into the face of perfectly formed blue-purple little flowers not higher than a few millimeters from the ground. They also enjoyed the sunlight and at once I became aware of self and how the most beautiful things are sometimes at your feet, and not somewhere in the distance.

Feeling partly ashamed for only having a long-lens on my camera, because I was not prepared to look closer to the ground, at my feet, I stood back far enough for the camera to be able to focus on the little flowers. Delicate little wonders that stood tall in the face of the storms we experienced, not showing much in the way of damage, perfectly adapted to withstand the fierce rumblings of mother nature.

We drove home and with a sense of peace, we walked back into our house. We had lunch and both of us slept peacefully after our little adventure, content to take on the last part of the day, hoping that tomorrow will bring another chance to escape our brick shelter.

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

Very common bird in South Africa and Africa, also found in Europe and Asia. Birds of the extreme northern and eastern parts of its range tend to be migratory, but those in Africa do not and many part of Europe.

You can read more about them, here.

The pictures I have so far, are from various parts of the country, dry central, garden route and sunshine coast.

Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicocus)

One of those perfect eagles. When you imagine an eagle, this would be the size and form one would imagine. Common in certain areas, rare in others within Southern Africa and some drier regions further north.

On the few occasions we have seen them it is usually in flight, never on the ground or trees, so when we stayed at the Red Sands Lodge, near Kuruman in the Northern Cape province, we took our chance to go and visit a raptor rehab center nearby. We saw a martial for the first time, up close, this one had injuries on wings and most birds are brought to the center by farmers in the region who find them injured.

What is nice, but also difficult for taking photographs, is the netting around the sides to minimize the interaction with humans, so I had to find a spot for my point and shoot to "see" through.

An impressive eagle, up to 86 cm high, and those talons are impressive to say the least, preceded by beautiful feathered legs.

Another feature is the short crest on the dark brown head, making him look even more impressive. It was an honor to see this bird, and my hope is to be able to see them close enough in nature to take pictures, but for now, we are happy to at least have been privileged to see this bird, hopefully hunting the skies again, by now.

Previous birding post:

Ground-Hornbill

Gemsbok (Oryx gazella)

Pale grey with white underparts. There is a black stripe along the back ending in a patch on the rump. Black between grey and white on the rump and down the legs, also on the head. I guess the most magnificent of these animals are the horns, exceptionally straight, both sexes have them.

Males average 1.26 m and females 1.25 m at shoulder height with average weight of 240 kg for males and 210 kg, females.They love arid, semi-arid open grassland, scrub and open woodland, but they are true desert animals too.

Reference:

Smithers' Mammals of Southern Africa: A field guide. Edited by Peter Apps. Struik publishers, 2000

Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)

A pretty common kingfisher throughout most parts of Sub - saharan Africa. Only black and white kingfisher in Africa.

This one is a female and only varies from female by a double band on the breast, being the male. Interestingly, I read somewhere once that they have helpers when breeding and a scarcity of food occurs. Helpers usually, offspring or non-breeding individuals, increase as the food becomes less. Wonderful how nature works.Previous birding post:

Knysna Toraco

Knysna Toraco (Tauraco corythaix)

An amazingly beautiful bird with a not so great hoarse voice. One of the special birds in my heart. First time we saw it was on honeymoon in Knysna area, on the Garden route of South Africa. We took coffee, binoculars and selected a piece of natural forest to go sit.

I remember it took a little time to get used to the sounds and surroundings, we saw basically nothing, and suddenly, the forest came alive around us. My wife went missing for a while, hunting a bird she saw with the binoculars, next moment I saw 2 Turaco's, and tried to get her attention. Waving, soft calling, whatever, eventually she noticed my attention seeking behavior, and saw the birds. We left that spot excited and happy. I did not have a camera either, so it was a pure experience for us.

We now live in a region where they also occur, just 1 km from our house we tend to see them fly over the road. They are endemic to South Africa and occur along the western and eastern coast forests.

Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus)

My guess would be that you and I think of this as one of the ugliest birds you have ever seen, but that is also what makes it fascinating.

Biggest stork in Northern South African region, but mainly in central Africa. The naked head, and red throat pouch with big bill are some characteristics, as well as pulling head in to shoulders in flight.

Here are some pictures my wife took in Kampala, Uganda. Mobile shots but gives a good idea of size.

They are scavengers amongst other things seen with vultures at animal kills. These are some shots I took of a bird and it still remains a fascinating bird, the more I look at it.

Cheetah

If a person should look at his life, one could look at it as an unedited movie, some of it being out of focus and lost, some mundane clips and then vivid clips, complete with stored emotions, tastes, smells and sounds, stored in a special "untraceable" section of the brain. These include moments from death, new life, laughter, sadness, loudness and complete silence.

One such a moment, saved in that place, was the sighting of the cheetah and spending time in their general company. The place is an unassuming small reserve, in the Free State Province, called Soetdoring Nature Reserve, a favorite hangout for a few years. Soetdoring refer to the ,Acacia karroo, sweet thorn trees found along the river that flows through the reserve.

The reserve, being small, has 2 camps, where in one they have lions and the other cheetah. You drive in through a double gate system and then follow various gravel roads looking for the animals. I questioned if they actually had any cheetah, because after 3 visits they remained invisible non existing "entities" to my mind.

Driving in, talking about other things and not expecting much, looking for birdies, suddenly, "There!", and in an instant the vehicle's engine was dead, but still moving slowly forward under what momentum it still had. Dead silence. Then, as if nature turned up the volume, chattering of birds all around us, the soft earthy smell of a mixture of "herbs and soil", replaced by a puff of a dead carcass.

The cheetah was sitting proudly upright, seemingly ignoring the intrusion, although it must have known about us long before we actually arrived at the spot.

[caption id="attachment_184" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Proudly over carcass.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Looking around.[/caption]

We watched in silence as he looked up and down, never in our direction, then a soft word, "beautiful", breaking through the chattering. Suddenly it got up and walked towards a hill, taking one of the gravel road tracks. We followed, and as the diesel sprung into life again, it seemed to make less noise as well, not nearly drowning out all the outside "music" as before.

[caption id="attachment_186" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Walking up the road.[/caption]

Slowly, determined and graceful, the cheetah walked up the road with his human observers in toe at a fair distance.

[caption id="attachment_187" align="aligncenter" width="474"] At the top of the hill.[/caption]

As we arrived at the top of the hill he veered off to the right and fairly shortly after that, as if a mirrored ghost, another one appeared from seemingly nowhere. They briefly touched, our cheetah turned around and the two came back towards us.

[caption id="attachment_188" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Meeting[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_189" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Walking back towards us.[/caption]

Then they found a nice spot fairly close, and lay down in what again seemed like a mirrored movement. Again the now in vehicle silence was broken with "stunning" and nature took over again. This time we were the ones being watched and in that moment I realized how they blended in and it was no wonder we never saw them before.

[caption id="attachment_190" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Resting in the shade.[/caption]

After a while and with a "sigh" natures music was broken again as I fired up the diesel and taking a last look at the two, drove off. This event has and will forever stay with me as a special moment, a vivid high-definition clip, but better than any technology version, as it combines with smell, sounds and other emotions. It also makes me wonder if we really think enough about how important nature in all its forms are for our own mental condition.

Driving away with a feeling of accomplishment, excitement and wonder, I realized that for the shortest of moments I was totally at peace, it was like taking deep oxygenated mental breath.